all too often the numbers don't add up -- e.g., a family description may say, '188 spp. in NA' but the combined sp. counts of genera can easily give you a total of 700...
of course, some sections are much more reliable than others, but errors abound, so use the book with great caution and double-check the facts --which may take a lot of research.

Offering a complete accounting of the insects of North America, this handbook is an up-dated edition of the first handbook ever compiled in the history of American entomology.

By using American Insects, A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico, Second Edition, the reader can quickly determine the taxonomic position of any species, genus, or higher taxon of insect known to occur in America and Canada. Every order, family, and genus is conveniently numbered and indexed, making this volume the only complete single source for all of the names of orders, families, and genera currently available.

This book fills the need for an accurate way to identify, with the several hundred drawings and photos, the common insects of all orders. Now there is a tool available to those working without a major collection and library; and those who would like to have a general knowledge of insect life without becoming overwhelmed by the vast number of minute insect species.

This usable guide provides sizes, shapes, color patterns and salient features of some species of each major family by pointing out those groups most likely to be encountered, including all North America pests.

Ross Harold Arnett, Jr. (1919-1999) was an American entomologist noted for his studies of beetles, and as founder of the Coleopterists Bulletin. - Biography per Wikipedia and the Florida Entomologist
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